Person: Fraser, James Arthur ( 1855-c 1911)

James Arthur Fraser was the eldest son of Hugh Fraser and Jane Bunting. On Hugh
Fraser's death in 1873, James Arthur, then eighteen, was immediately assumed as a
partner to manage his father's business, Fraser & McLaren, alongside his
father's partner, Alexander McLaren, and his father's trustees. In 1894, following a
court case in which David and Matthew Fraser, the two youngest sons of Hugh Fraser,
unsuccessfully contested the transfer of the company, renamed Fraser Sons &
Co in 1875, to James Arthur and his brothers John and Hugh, the existing
co-partnership was dissolved and the three brothers commenced in business as sole
partners. In 1909, Fraser Sons & Co was registered as a private company and
James Arthur, together with Hugh and John, were appointed directors.

James Arthur retired on grounds of ill health in February 1906. He died in about
1911.

Sources:

Moss, Michael and Turton, Alison, A Legend of Retailing: House of Fraser, London 1989